So this post is really just a re-introduction. I'm wearing my emotional water wings and paddling in the shallow end of blogging.
So what have I been up to in three months? A hell of a lot.
When I left off, I'd just returned from my trip to Ironman Wisconsin, aka IMOO. It was an awesome awesome trip, including engaging in arm wrestling with Rohini (and losing rather spectacularly as you can see!)
The excitement of getting there was more than surpassed by one of the most petrifying experiences of my life - captaining a blind man on a tandem bike for a 60 mile loop of the Ironman course. Doug is an amazing athlete and is signed up for next year (with a different captain, I hasten to add!). Even more amazing, is that he trusted me not only with his life, but also with manipulating gears to keep us both cycling smoothly and efficiently, braking when we were bombing down the hills at 45 mph, and cornering safely without losing too much momentum.
Here's the process:
- Attach the pedals from Indy onto Doug's 20 year old steel bike weighing approximately 50lbs.
- Adjust bike to my fit
- Hammer the seat down further because it doesn't quite fit
- Decide that I'll live with the slight stretch in my legs
- Tighten back brakes
- Practice in the parking lot. Check - I can control the bike on my own
- Listen to instructions
- Doug and Mary straddle bike
- Slight lean to the right, Mary takes weight of bike
- Doug clips in both left and right pedals, Mary takes full weight of bike (50lbs) + Doug (170lbs)
- Mary clips in left pedal.
- Mary pushes off and quickly sits on saddle
- Doug pedals for the two of us, Mary clips in when we're going fast enough to stop pedaling
We would get to step #10 just fine. Only every time I pushed off, I instinctively tried to pedal. And when we were moving so slowly, the bike wobbles like crazy, heading instinctively towards some woman jogging with a stroller, or a jersey barrier or an oncoming car. Those first few moments were shit-scary but mostly we managed to bunny hop our way up to speed. I realised afterwards that I had been given an extraordinarily valuable lesson in trust. Doug had to trust me, and I also had to trust him. I can't wait to see him cross the finish line next year.
The weekend took a surreal turn on the drive home. There I was, happily driving a truck across Indiana with a couple of teammates when we decided to check email to see who on the team had managed to sign up for the Ironman. Sue starts reading out emails from the team when she says "And this Mark ___ says "I can't believe I'm saying this, but, I'm in!"" Poor Sue didn't realise that our last names are different, so she was a bit bemused when my jaw dropped to the floor and I started alternately screaming and giggling.
After we called Mark to confirm his craziness, I spent about five minutes toying with the idea of signing up myself and then decided that I needed to be the supportive partner on this one. I'm so very proud of him! Now, all he has to do is learn to swim ...
What else has happened in the past three months?
I went on a rafting trip in the Gauley River in beautiful, wild, wonderful West Virginia. What a blast that was. The highlight--or perhaps the lowlight--was our raft flipping on one
of the toughest rapids, right where a guy died 10 days before. It was pretty damn scary, floating down the river towards the next rapids and trying to remember the safety instructions we'd been given earlier that day. It was absolutely amazing to see all these professional river guides leap into action and rescue us all. I ended up laying on a rock on the bank of the river completely and utterly spent. I have to say that getting back in the raft and facing the next rapid was a pretty difficult thing to do.Here's a slide show from the trip, but not of our flip.
Since that excitement, I also travelled to Florida to, once again, cheer on my fellow Team Zers at Ironman Florida. And once again, it was an extraordinarily emotional trip, as well as a bloody long way. It did, however, give me an opportunity to show off my brand new tattoo. Now, that hurt. Boy did it ever. But it's totally worth it and went a long way to helping me feel more in control of my life for a while.
Let's see. Oh yeah - I changed careers. Finally, after about four months of unemployment I got two offers - one in my field and one in marketing. When I became unemployed, I'd said that I'd like to work in athletics, but those jobs are few and far between and with no experience (except an Ironman!), my chances were slim, although I talked to people working with disabled athletes and started coaching Girls on the Run. However, my wonderful coaches who essentially took me in and gave me a job in their running store, decided that they needed someone doing marketing fulltime for them.
So, here I am, learning a new career and writing a marketing plan for 2010. The job is a temporary one - we need to prove that my efforts will actually pay for themselves. But I'm so enjoying it and so excited to be digging into all this stuff. It's all data and relationships and persuasion and experiments and this company is very energetic and really knows its stuff. They've grown from three to seven stores in the area in 18 months and are all incredible professionals. So I decided to take the leap and leave IT and go in a completely different direction. We'll see where it leads.
It's scary though - I describe it as the feeling I had five minutes after signing up for Ironman.
Um, I think that's all the highlights of the past three months.
Boy - this is getting long.
There have been some lowlights. I think in past blog postings, I've mentioned post-Ironman depression - when you go from 20+ hours of endorphin generating exercise and a single, all consuming focus to ... nothing. Post-Ironman depression is very common. I thought I'd dodged the bullet, focusing so intently on the job search. But it just delayed the onset. A few weeks after the Ironman, it hit me hard. And of course, unemployment magnified it tenfold. With nothing to do all day, and no exercise to speak of, and realising that there wasn't any point in applying for Federal jobs (aka a Sisyphean task if ever there is one). So, for a while there - maybe two or three months - I spent way too much time sleeping in bed, unable to get up or returning in the afternoon, crying for no reason, feeling like a failure in even the most mundane of tasks. Classic symptoms of depression.
It took a lot for me to admit this was the case. But once I did, it helped a little. It meant that I could let people know that I was feeling down and let them help me. And I could find a running partner who needed me as much as I needed her and start getting some of those endorphins to do their thing. And getting the tattoo helped too. Slowly I'm coming right. I'm not declaring victory yet. The end of the year is bringing a lot of reflection and therefore a lot of pain, but I'm also looking forward to what 2010 is going to bring me.
And what can I say about the friends I've made this year. Friends who maybe started out as acquaintances or work colleagues and unexpectedly stepped up right when I needed them with a shoulder to cry on, wise career advice, a bottle of wine to share or an invitation for a run. 2009 has, if nothing else, both widened my circle of friends enormously and added a few extremely special people to the BFF circle. 2010 is my turn to help you guys.
Let's see. Oh yeah - I changed careers. Finally, after about four months of unemployment I got two offers - one in my field and one in marketing. When I became unemployed, I'd said that I'd like to work in athletics, but those jobs are few and far between and with no experience (except an Ironman!), my chances were slim, although I talked to people working with disabled athletes and started coaching Girls on the Run. However, my wonderful coaches who essentially took me in and gave me a job in their running store, decided that they needed someone doing marketing fulltime for them.
So, here I am, learning a new career and writing a marketing plan for 2010. The job is a temporary one - we need to prove that my efforts will actually pay for themselves. But I'm so enjoying it and so excited to be digging into all this stuff. It's all data and relationships and persuasion and experiments and this company is very energetic and really knows its stuff. They've grown from three to seven stores in the area in 18 months and are all incredible professionals. So I decided to take the leap and leave IT and go in a completely different direction. We'll see where it leads.
It's scary though - I describe it as the feeling I had five minutes after signing up for Ironman.
Um, I think that's all the highlights of the past three months.
Boy - this is getting long.
There have been some lowlights. I think in past blog postings, I've mentioned post-Ironman depression - when you go from 20+ hours of endorphin generating exercise and a single, all consuming focus to ... nothing. Post-Ironman depression is very common. I thought I'd dodged the bullet, focusing so intently on the job search. But it just delayed the onset. A few weeks after the Ironman, it hit me hard. And of course, unemployment magnified it tenfold. With nothing to do all day, and no exercise to speak of, and realising that there wasn't any point in applying for Federal jobs (aka a Sisyphean task if ever there is one). So, for a while there - maybe two or three months - I spent way too much time sleeping in bed, unable to get up or returning in the afternoon, crying for no reason, feeling like a failure in even the most mundane of tasks. Classic symptoms of depression.
It took a lot for me to admit this was the case. But once I did, it helped a little. It meant that I could let people know that I was feeling down and let them help me. And I could find a running partner who needed me as much as I needed her and start getting some of those endorphins to do their thing. And getting the tattoo helped too. Slowly I'm coming right. I'm not declaring victory yet. The end of the year is bringing a lot of reflection and therefore a lot of pain, but I'm also looking forward to what 2010 is going to bring me.
And what can I say about the friends I've made this year. Friends who maybe started out as acquaintances or work colleagues and unexpectedly stepped up right when I needed them with a shoulder to cry on, wise career advice, a bottle of wine to share or an invitation for a run. 2009 has, if nothing else, both widened my circle of friends enormously and added a few extremely special people to the BFF circle. 2010 is my turn to help you guys.
